August Ferdinand Möbius

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The proper spelling of the subject of this article contains the character ö. Where this is unavailable, the name may be given as Mobius or Moebius.

August Ferdinand Möbius (November 17, 1790, Schulpforta, Saxony, Germany - September 26, 1868, Leipzig) was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer.

He is best known for his discovery of the Möbius strip, a non-orientable two-dimensional surface with only one side when immersed in three-dimensional Euclidean space. It was independently discovered by Johann Benedict Listing at about the same time. Möbius was the first to introduce homogeneous coordinates into projective geometry. Möbius transformations, important in projective geometry, and not to be confused with the Möbius transform of number theory, also bear his name. His interest was also in number theory, and the important Möbius function μ(n) and the Möbius inversion formula are named after him.

Möbius studied under Carl Friedrich Gauss. He was a descendant of Martin Luther.

The character of Johann Wilhelm Möbius - a particular scientist who tries to evade his own inventions by pretending to be insane - in Dürrenmatt's satiric drama The Physicists is named after him. So is the asteroid 28516 Möbius. There is a tribute to him in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, in the form on the deathmatch map dm_mobius. He also plays a pivotal part in the Necroscope book series.

Ref: Möbius Aromaticity and Delocalization Chem. Rev., 105 (10), 3697 -3715, 2005.